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Project Streamline Announces New Guides

In this economic downturn, both grantmakers and grantseekers are being asked to do more with less. Project Streamline, a collaborative initiative of eight organizations, led by the Grants Managers Network, is working to improve grant application and reporting in ways that reduce costs for both grantmakers and grantseekers.

We are pleased to announce that the first two components of the Project Streamline Guide to Streamlining Series are now available. Grant Budgets and Financial Reporting and Online Applications and Reporting provide recommendations to increase the net impact of a grant by eliminating unnecessary paperwork and removing technology barriers that distract from the mission of both the grantmaker and the nonprofits it serves. Both reports are available for download at http://www.gmnetwork.org/sites/all/modules/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=568&qid=64137.

About the Grant Budgets and Financial Reporting Guide

Grantseekers report that having to "slice and dice” their financial information is one of the most time and cost-intensive parts of grant seeking. The straightforward, technical advice of Grant Budgeting and Financial Reporting assists grantmaking organizations in eliminating rigid templates, timelines that do not align with nonprofit project schedules, and excessive reporting requirements. The Guide assists funders in decreasing financial reporting requirements for nonprofit organizations to the maximum extent possible, while still carrying out proper financial due diligence.

About the Online Applications and ReportingGuide

The Online Applications and Reporting Guide identifies both the essential and gold-standard features and practices of online systems to help grantmaking organizations implement a system that is user-friendly and designed to help grantseekers succeed. Focusing on the core values of making online grantmaking usable, clear, and comprehensive, the Guide not only addresses the features and functions of the technology, but also non-technical best practices of grantmakers that make the systems successful. A supplemental report evaluating seven different vendors against the essential and gold-standard features outlined in the report will be available in mid-March.About the Guide to Streamlining Series

The Guide series, each component of which will be made available online at no charge as it is ready, supplies the necessary tools to help grantmakers apply Project Streamline's four principles:

1. Taking a fresh look at information requirements with a special focus on what due diligence grantmakers really need to do in order to make a grant.2. Rightsizing grant application and reporting requirements.3. Reducing the burden that grantseeking places on grantees with a special focus on improving financial reporting and implementing online systems.4. Improving communications and obtaining feedback from grantseekers to support and help direct your streamlining efforts.